THE REMNANTS of Hurricane Maria and Lee are heading out over the Atlantic towards Britain where the Met Office has issued rain warnings for Sunday and Monday. Here are the live path updates and most recent models.

Latest models show Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Lee to merge and strike into the UK.

The Met Office has issued a yellow level severe weather warning for rain between just after midnight in the early hours of Sunday and 6pm on Monday.

The rain warning covers the Midlands, North West and South West England, Wales, Yorkshire and Humber and parts of Scotland.

The Met Office said: “Spells of heavy and persistent rain are expected over some areas of western and northern Britain accompanied by strong winds at times.

“There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded, causing damage to some buildings and that some communities could become cut off by flooded roads.

“Where flooding occurs there is a slight chance of delays to train and bus services whilst spray and flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures.

“There is a small chance of fast flowing water or deep floodwater causing danger to life.

“In addition, strong winds may be an additional hazard at times with a slight chance of trees falling, power cuts and loss of other services to homes and businesses.”

Met Office

UK storm update: Met Office issues rain warning for parts of the UK

10.30am: UK braced for wet and windy weekend

Jim Dale, forecaster for British Weather Services, said gusts of between 60 and 70mph are likely to batter the worst-hit regions of the UK.

He said: “We are certainly looking at a wet and windy weekend, it all still depends on how Maria and Lee converge and the path they take.

“At the moment it is a very messy picture, but the most likely situation is that we see northwest Scotland and western Britain on the receiving end of some very wet and windy weather.”

10.24am: Third low-pressure system could hitch a ride with Maria and Lee

Maria could collide with Lee – currently a category 3 hurricane – between now and Friday creating a huge storm system.

Forecasters say a third low-pressure system discovered near Newfoundland could hitch a ride with Maria and Lee adding further vigour to the mix.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: “It is still uncertain whether the union of Lee and Maria will take place and what happens after that.

“There is now another more typical low pressure system off the coast of Newfoundland which will bring a situation where we could have three systems interacting.”

Ventusky

UK storm update: Latest path as Hurricane Lee and Maria head towards

Alice Foster taking over live reporting from Joe Tambini

7.30am: Maria and Lee set to accelerate

Hurricane Lee is expected to accelerate and turn to the northeast by tonight before weakening over the next 48 hours, the NOAA's NHC has said.

Hurricane Maria is also forecast to pick up speed tonight as it begins to move across the Atlantic towards Britain and Ireland.

The NOAA’s latest tropical storm force wind probabilities forecast shows the two systems converging in the next 72 hours.

10.45pm: Hurricane Maria turns away from North Carolina

Maria has finally started moving slowly away from the coast of North Carolina, bending north-northeast.

The hurricane is now expected to hurtle across the Atlantic towards Britain. Any remaining hurricane warning in the US are likely to be end tonight, according to the NHC.

The latest advisory said: “Maria is forecast to accelerate east northeastward on Thursday through Friday. On the forecast track, Maria will move away from the coast of North Carolina through Thursday.”

Met Office

UK storm update: The tail end of Hurricane Maria moves over the Atlantic

8.50pm: Remnants of Maria and Lee to hit UK on Sunday

The remnants of hurricanes Maria and Lee are forecast to reach the UK on Sunday, although they will no longer be tropical systems.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin said: “By the time we get to the weekend they are becoming ex-storms.

“They are drifting away from the tropics, so they are losing their heat source and are no longer tropical systems.

“But they are still low pressure systems and they do still have energy and moisture.”

Experts are still uncertain on the extent to which Maria and Lee will impact the UK but increased levels of wind and rain are likely.

“Either way it looks like there will be rain swinging across the UK and it could potentially get very windy, especially on Sunday night and into Monday,” Mr Deakin added.

"It does provide more energy to that system and warmer air which can hold a lot of moisture and so can result in a lot of rainfall.

"But as it crosses the Atlantic as a very different structure to what you would expect from a hurricane."

Met Office

UK storm update: Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Lee over the Atlantic

4.10pm: Hurricane Lee becomes the 5th major hurricane of the season

Hurricane Lee has become the fifth major hurricane of the 2017 season with winds reaching 115 mph.

The winds of Hurricane Lee have now surpassed the 111 mph threshold for a category 3 hurricane, which can cause devastating damage.

But the NHC said: “A gradual decrease in water temperatures should start a weakening trend within 12-24 hours, with a faster weakening forecast on Thursday and Friday.”

GFS

UK storm path update: Latest GFS wind map

Philip Klotzbach, meteorologist at CSU, said this is the seventh Atlantic hurricane season on record with five category 3 and above hurricanes by September 27.

4pm: Maria strengthens into a hurricane again

The NHC said: “Maria is forecast to accelerate east-northeastward on Thursday and Thursday night.

“On the forecast track, Maria will begin to move away from the coast of North Carolina later today and tonight.”

NHC NOAA

UK storm path update LIVE: Hurricane Maria track towards UK

3pm: Remnants of Maria and Lee to likely to impact British weather

Met Office chief operational meteorologist Andy Page said: “The remnants of tropical systems are likely to impact our weather towards the end of the weekend and into the beginning of next week.

“However, it is important to say that any weather impacts will be very different from those experienced in the Caribbean.”

Despite weakening while crossing the Altantic, the remnants of the storms will still contain air of tropical origin which could influence the British weather.

Mr Page added: “The track of these systems and how they may interact with another area of low pressure in the Atlantic is uncertain – there may end up being one large area of low pressure or several separate systems.

“So at this time, while we can say that many places will see a period of wet and windy weather later this weekend and into next week, we can’t say which areas of the UK will see the wettest or windiest weather. The best advice is to keep up to date with the latest forecast and warnings.”

GEFS Met Office

UK storm path update: Red tracks from the GEFS and white tracks from the Met Office

11am: Maria is forecast to accelerate across the north Atlantic

The latest NHC update said that after 36 hours Maria is expected to “accelerate northeastward across the north Atlantic”.

The NHC added: “Most of the model spread continues to be in the along-track direction, highlighted by the faster GFS and HWRF models and the slower ECMWF model.”

10.30am: Maria to turn into extratropical cyclone

Maria is currently a tropical storm and is expected to turn into an extratropical cyclone in four days time.

The NHC’s latest update said: “Maria is expected to complete extratropical transition by day 4.

“The global models then indicate that the low will be absorbed by a larger extratropical low over the northeastern Atlantic by day 5.”

ECMWF

UK storm path update: Latest ECMWF map shows Maria's track

6.30am: Spaghetti model shows Maria and Lee coming together

The latest long-range ECMWF spaghetti model show that the tail ends of Maria and Lee could come togther over the Atlantic before heading in the direction of Britain.

10.15am: Lee could become a category 3 major hurricane today

The NHC said: “The official intensity forecast reflects the possibility of Lee becoming a major hurricane later today before a weakening trend commences by early Wednesday.”

Both Lee and Maria are weakening, but the Met Office said there is potential for the storms to impact the weather in the UK although the track remains uncertain.

Frank Saunders, chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “Ex-Maria is likely to impact our weather towards the end of the weekend and into the beginning of next week.

“However, it is important to say that any weather impacts will be far from those experienced in the Caribbean.

“Hurricanes gain their energy from the warm tropical waters and Ex-Maria’ will be modified significantly as it tracks over the cool North Atlantic ocean.

“Ex-Maria will still contain tropical air brought north and it is this air which has the potential to affect our weather. Our waters are far too cool to sustain an actual hurricane.”

He added: “These systems regularly head towards the UK, especially in autumn. They can bring very strong winds and heavy rain, but they are a normal part of our weather.

“At the moment the track of Maria is uncertain and therefore the direction in which it takes as it weakens and becomes ex-Maria is also uncertain.

“This makes it hard to assess the likely impacts ex-Maria may have on our weather, therefore it’s worth keeping up to date with the forecast for the latest information and we’ll keep you updated with any potential impacts for the UK.”